Snapshots
by ShinyMew888
Summary: A look at NicoB interacting with some of the best characters he's encountered in his Let's Plays.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes**

I hope this turned out all right. This my first time writing so many different characters so I hope no one's too out of character. NicoB is my absolute favorite Youtuber so I wanted to do something to contribute to the Picky Penguin community. Hope you enjoy~

* * *

Dangan Ronpa

" _This should prove it_!"

" **I'll cut that claim to pieces**!"

" _ **SORE WA CHIGAU YO**_ **!"**

Nico glanced up from his DS as the yelling crescendoed. The ahoge bearing protagonists had been arguing back and forth for a good thirty minutes now. Nico wasn't really sure what had happened. Everything had been going so well between the two heroes until they realized Nico had given them the same voice. After that all Hell had broken loose. Nico shifted his eyes to the Ultimate Gamer sitting next to him.

"Sore wa chi what now?" he inquired.

"Sore wa chigau yo. It's Japanese. It translates to 'That's not right' or 'You've got that wrong.'" Chiaki responded without taking her eyes off her own DS. "Hm…..Oh look I caught a Pikachu."

"How long are they gonna argue about this? I mean seriously no one else was angry about sharing a voice." Nico looked around the Hotel Restaurant where the characters of Dangan Ronpa and its sequel were ignoring the argument and mingling amongst themselves.

"Ah...Maybe they thought they were special, being the protagonist and all." Chiaki yawned. "You know how hung up on being special Hajime is."

"Still..."

"Don't worry. It'll resolve itself soon….I think."

"Hopefully" Nico muttered.

No sooner was the word out of his mouth then a mop of white hair poked out from underneath the table he was seated at.

"Did someone say hope?" Nagito inquired from the floor in that nasally voice of his.

"THE FUCK DID YOU COME FROM?!" Nico yelped in surprise

"Ah...Hello Nagito." Chiaki said, not at all affected by Nagito's jump scare appearance. "Did you get Monokuma to teach you his floorboard trick?"

"Mhm. But wow what an honor. To imagine that trash like me would ever get to be in the presence of the Great Nico B! This is amazing! Truly I'm unworthy to even-"

He was cut off by Nico shoving a bagel into his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah just shut up and eat your bagel you piece of shit." Nico mumbled, feeling intensely uncomfortable.

Nagito flopped onto the floor and began to munch on his bagel happily. In the background the two protagonists' argument continued, ignored.

Ace Attorney

"OBJECTION!"

Edgeworth felt his face twitch slightly. He had come to Wright's agency to pass along some paperwork on a case of mutual interest but apparently Wright found practicing his objection more important than doing actual work. Sighing, Edgeworth entered the office without knocking.

"Wright I brought you those-"

Edgeworth stopped, blinking in surprise. Sitting in the chair behind the desk was not Phoenix Wright, but instead a different young man. The stranger froze before jumping to his feet and walking over to where Edgeworth stood.

"You're Miles Edgeworth right? Nice to meet you! My name is Nico B."

The young man, Nico, stuck out his hand, smiling at Edgeworth expectantly. Clearing his throat awkwardly, Edgeworth grabbed Nico's hand and shook it.

"A pleasure Mr. B. I would so love to stay and chat but I need to get back to the prosecutor's office. Now where did Wright disappear to?"

"Huh? You mean Phoenix?"

"Yes. I need to give him these papers."

"But he's not here right now…"

"Did Wright put you up to this? I know he's here. I heard him yelling 'objection' just a moment ago."

A sudden look of understanding crossed Nico's face and he chuckled sheepishly.

"Er no, that was me. I was doing my uh...impersonation of Phoenix and I got carried away, sorry."

Edgeworth sighed before he pushed past Nico and began looking under the desk "Look, Wright I know you're in here so why don't you ju-"

" _HOLD IT!"_

Edgeworth whirled around. Nico was pointing at him dramatically with a smirk on his face.

"See? Told ya my impersonation was on point."

Edgeworth stared for a moment "I...see. I apologize for doubting your….abilities, Mr. B."

Nico smiled vibrantly. "It's cool. Hey! Wanna hear my impression of you?"

"Er-"

Nico took a deep breath and "OBJECTION!"

Edgeworth blinked rapidly. That...that was his voice. If he didn't know any better he would have thought he had shouted it himself….He was starting feel light headed.

"Ooooh wagging my finger at you. Gumshoe get over here and straighten my cravat. Weird Edgeworth noises." Nico continued on, unaware of Edgeworth's rapidly paling expression. "That's bullshit and you know it Wright! Shut up about you're fucking turkey sandwiches Judge-"

 _Thud_

"H-huh?!" Nico glanced over just in time to see Edgeworth faint and collide with floor.

After that, Edgeworth always made Wright come to _his_ office.

Persona 4 (The Hierophant and Justice)

Today, Dojima decided, was a good day. There was no weird fog, Adachi wasn't being a little bitch when he visited (he was being surprisingly nice even), and best of all, he was got off early enough to eat dinner with Nanako and Yu, who was visiting. So, with a smile Dojima opened the door to his home.

"I'm home."

"Dad!" came Nanako's delighted voice.

Dojima chuckled as he removed his shoes. "Hey, Nanako. Have you been good for your big br-"

Dojima froze. Sitting next to his daughter was a complete stranger. Dojima let out a low growl and began to advance on the stranger. He was interrupted when Nanko ran up and hugged him. Dojima shot Nanako a quick smile before returning his attention to the strange man. The man in question had gotten to his feet and was currently hiding behind Yu, who was standing next to the kitchen table. Nanako followed her father's glare and frowned.

"What's wrong Nico?" Nanako asked, concerned.

The man, Nico, opened his mouth to reply but when his eyes fell to Dojima all he managed was a squeak. Yu reached up and patted Nico's hand, which rested on his shoulder.

"This is Nico B, Uncle. A friend of mine from the city. It happened that he passing through so I told him to hop off the train a few stops early so I could introduce him to all my friends here. He and Yosuke in particular will probably get along."

Nico waved meekly from behind Yu. Dojima rubbed the back of his awkwardly "Ah...Sorry. Nice to meet you B-kun."

Nico just stared in near awe. After a few seconds passed, Dojima frowned and raised an eyebrow "Is something...wrong?"

Nico, who was still standing behind Yu, shook his head rapidly "No, no it's just, you're Dojima! Resident Bad-" Nico eyes suddenly landed on Nanako and he paled "B-Bad….bad...uh b-bad guy catcher!" He finished lamely.

Dojima merely raised his other eyebrow as Yu face palmed. His nephew sure had some eccentric friends, didn't he?

Nanako laughed, delighted "Yeah, Dad's the best!"

The four of them migrated over to living room table and settled down, waiting for their dinner to be done. Yu was telling Dojima about his friends strange antics when a familiar jingle began playing.

" _At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day's great at your Junes!_ "

"Every day's great at your Junes~!" Nanako sung delightedly.

Nico smiled adoringly at Nanako and sang the line back to her. Nanako's eyes widened and they spent the rest wait for dinner singing back and forth. A small smile made its way across Dojima's face as the two roped Yu into their antics. His nephew really brought out the best people, huh?

Persona 4 (The Empress and the Fools)

Yu glanced around, concerned. He seemed to have lost track of Nico while showing him around the shopping district. Yu knew Nico was an adult but he couldn't help but worry that that eccentric personality of his was going to get him in trouble. Yu figured Dojima would be unimpressed if he had to haul Nico in for disturbing the peace. Yu looked to his left and froze. The door to the Velvet Room glowed softly next to him. How odd. Yu was positive this door had disappeared after that weird tournament with Sho. Deciding a little visit wouldn't hurt (it's not like time worked normally there anyway), Yu opened the door.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room.'

"Hello Igo-" Yu blinked and closed his mouth with a click

"Is something wrong Guest?"

"...Nico, what are you doing?"

Nico smiled enigmatically "I have no idea what you mean. My name is Igor~~."

Yu simply sighed. Nico was dressed in the signature blues of the Velvet Room attendants (had Theodore lent him some clothes?) shuffling a deck of tarot cards. He sat in Igor's seat while the man in question sat in Marie's old spot, regarding the bespectacled man in amusement.

"It has been a long time since anyone has been so...enthusiastic about working in this room. Perhaps I should hire him as an attendant." The real Igor said with a mysterious smile.

Margret's smile, on the other hand, appeared very forced "Perhaps you should, Master."

Yu couldn't help but notice the frigid glare she was sending Nico's way. Had Nico been flirting with her before he had come in? If so, that would certainly explain Margret's rather intense annoyance.

"Now then" Igor and Nico said in unison "Do you believe in fortune telling~?'

Yu face palmed.

Steins; Gate

Nico questioned the chain of events that led to this outcome. He was, at the moment, sitting in MayQueen+Nyan^2 sipping some coffee. His eyes closed, he could practically hear Godot shouting about how coffee wasn't worth drinking if it wasn't (insert eloquent metaphor here) and allowed a small chuckle to escape his lips.

"Eh? Is something funny Nico-kun?" A voice queried from across the table.

Nico opened his eyes and regarded the man sitting across from him. Strange that of all the people he could have been with, his trip to Steins; Gate was being spent with Daru. When he had gotten to this universe Nico had intended to spend time with Mayuri and Okabe but he had just sort of...fallen into step with Daru. Before he knew it, a week had flown by and he still found himself chilling with the super hacka.

"Nico-kun?" Daru repeated curiously.

Nico smiled and pointed over Daru's shoulder to the scene unfolding behind him. Faris was absolutely wrecking Okabe in Rainet as Mayuri flitted about around them, excitedly. He couldn't quite hear them, but it looked like Okabe was going full Gundam mode if the arm gestures were any indication.

Daru pulled _that_ face and sighed causing Nico to laugh a little harder. Lukako and Moeka stared at the board in total confusion, while Kurisu gave Faris a high-five. Suzuha unfortunately, not there but that was probably for the best. After all, her absence meant there was no awful future to avoid. Nico glanced over at Daru, who was watching his friends with exasperated fondness.

Leaning back in his chair Nico contemplated this turn of events. Daru, as funny as he was, had faded into obscurity for most of the game. So, he wondered, was this his Daru ending? Was he just going to chill with Daru forever? Play wing-man to make sure Daru met Suzuha's mom? After everything that had happened through his play through he would gladly take this happy ending.

Movement caught his attention, bringing him back to reality. Daru, fed up with Okabe's poor strategy, took his spot across from Faris to "show him how it's done".

Nico chuckled softly as he watched the friends interact. It was nice to see a no strings attached happy ending for once in this game. Nico downed the rest of his coffee before walking over to the group, humming the game's ending theme under his breath.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's notes:**

Hey guys! Thank you so much for all the positive feedback on the last chapter, I really appreciate it! Anyway, I was thinking that maybe, if you guys wanted to, I could do requests for more snapshot moments? I really enjoy this little writing project but I don't always have the ideas to support it. Fair warning though. I haven't watched all of Nico's Let's Plays so I wouldn't be able to write for every character. Also I know Corpse Party was a big one for Nico but I never watched his LP of it. As such, well you could certainly request say, Morishigue or Seiko, I'm not very familiar with Nico's interpretation of them (aside from the occasional jokes he makes) so I would more than likely write them as their canon counterparts. Sorry about that. Well I hope you enjoy! I'm sorry it's not as good as the last chapter TT-TT.

* * *

 _ Journey_

The robed creature sat silently on the sand dune, deep in contemplation. It had completed its journey, and what a journey it had been. After all that had happened the creature felt satisfied, it felt...reborn.

A sudden noise caught the creature's attention. Standing gracefully, it made its way over to the edge of the dune, and peered over it. There at the base of the dune was another figure in a red robe. The man was laying on his back laughing breathlessly, seemingly oblivious to the world around him. This went on for a few moments before the man climbed to his feet and began looking around.

"Little Buddy where'd you go?" The man called out, still a bit out of breath.

The creature closed its glowing eyes against the light of stars and sang its answer. The Note blossomed around it, casting an ethereal glow in the immediate vicinity. The man turned to the sound. Smiling brightly up at the creature, he clambered up the side of the sand dune.

"That was _gorgeous. Let's do it again!"_ The man exclaimed delightedly, sliding down the other side of the dune. Shaking its head, the creature followed after.

Dawn broke over the world as their journey began anew.

 _ Kingdom Hearts_

"Waitwaitwaitwai- _GOD DAMMIT_!"

Sora's body fell forward as his heart escaped his body. Suddenly, time began to reverse and soon Sora found himself at the beginning of the battle once more. This was the...well to be honest Sora had lost count of how many times he had fought this enemy but he was sure Nico knew.

They group had returned to Traverse Town at Nico's request, something about "Picky Penguins" pestering him to visit the Dalmatians? Sora wouldn't pretend he had any idea what that meant but since he had some questions for Leon anyway, he saw no reason to disagree. They found Leon leaning against the Dalmatian's house, staring dramatically into the distance. When they got a little closer Leon looked over at them and raised an eyebrow, expectantly. Sora opened his mouth to ask Leon what he knew about the strange One Winged Man he had fought but he was interrupted by an enormous crash behind them. Dust flew everywhere as the entire world shook violently causing them all to stumble.

"What the flying fruity fuck was that?!" Nico shouted using the wall to steady himself.

Leon stayed silent, turning his intense gaze to the dust cloud that formed. Suddenly his eyes widened and every instinct in Sora's body screamed at him to move. Whirling around, he brought up his ultimate key blade just in time to block the knife that had been hurled at him. Out of the dust came...something. Sora wasn't entirely sure how to go about describing the monstrosity in front of him. It was a heartless clearly, but he had definitely never seen _this_ kind before. It looked like it was made entirely of arms many of which were holding massive knives and one of which held a strange blue mask with the roman numeral I on it.

"The Picky Penguins are gonna lose their shit." Nico muttered as Sora, Donald and Goofy took their fighting stances.

That was the beginning of a seemingly unwinnable fight. This thing (Nico kept calling it "the Magician") was _strong,_ more than capable of knocking out Donald in one hit. Nico kept calling out strategies from where he and Leon stood in front of the house, protecting the puppies within. Unfortunately, nothing Sora did seemed to phase the Heartless as it once again threw him into the ground before knocking Goofy out again.

"God dammit. GOD DAMMIT! You know WHAT?! _FUCK IT!"_ Sora barely had time to process Nico's outburst before the man in question charged past him, Goofy's shield in hand.

"Nico what are doing?!" Sora yelled in alarm. Nico paid him no mind, fearlessly running up to the Heartless. Taken aback by the sudden charge, the monster froze for a moment

"FUCK! _YOUR_! _**SHIT**_ _!"_ Nico punctuated each word by slamming Save the King into the monster's mask. On the last strike Nico raised the shield above his head, bringing it down full force. The monster jerked backwards, sending Nico stumbling in the opposite direction.

Sora stared at Nico in amazement. For most of his journey Nico had simply stood on the sidelines and told Sora had to get around the Heartless's various gimmicks. Given his own lack of combat experience, Sora was happy to let Nico take control of their strategies. He had no idea Nico was capable of fighting at all. Sora gasped when he got a good look at the shield in Nico's hands. The Ultimate shield was ruined, the dent from the blows had nearly put a hole through the metal.

Nico scowled at the shield before tossing aside like the trash it now was. Keeping his eyes on the Heartless he stuck out his hand.

"Someone give me a weapon. _Now._ "

Sora and Donald exchanged worried looks. That was a difficult request to fill. Donald's staff would do Nico, who had no affinity for magic whatsoever, no good. Similarly, Sora couldn't exactly hand over the Key Blade, it would return to his hand as soon a Nico tried to swing it. Before Sora could try to explain this to Nico, he felt something whiz past his ear. Sora jerked to the side, as Leon's blade impaled itself into the ground next to Nico.

"I can trust you to use it well." Leon said, watching Nico intently. "Now get this eyesore out of here. It's scaring the puppy."

Nico nodded, picking up the Leon's Gun Blade and pointing at the enemy.

"Bring it on Bitch! I've killed you once before and _I'll happily do it again!_ "

Deciding there was no point in arguing, Sora and Donald dragged Goofy over to Leon and began casting healing and defensive spells on Nico.

"That man..." Leon pondered quietly "I feel like we've met before, a long time ago..."

* * *

 _End notes_

Sorry about the Magician's random appearance. I dunno about you guys but I couldn't get through a single episode of Kingdom Hearts without wanting to make a Persona joke. So when I needed a weird monster, my first thought was that fucking monstrosity. I hope it didn't suck to bad. Thanks for reading~!


	3. Chapter 3

**Adventures in Babysitting (Earthbound)**

Nico, Ness thought, was unlike adult he had ever met. He talked to himself a lot, in lots of silly voices but he was by far the most responsible adult he knew. Like that time they went to see that strange man on the top of the hill.

"I hope the Picky Penguins know what they're talking about." Nico sighed staring at the house dejectedly.

Ness pointedly ignored him and walked into the house

"Hey buddy thanks for coming. I'm gonna show you my treasure but just you, I can only trust you." The house's owner said.

"I'm standing right here" Nico complained from the doorway.

The man didn't seem to see Nico at all, beckoning for Ness to follow him he climbed down the ladder. Ness moved to get onto the ladder as Nico stared down the massive hole in the floor.

"Oh for fuck's sake." Nico muttered. Realizing Ness was, in fact, still listening, he paled slightly "Er, d-don't repeat that."

The two of them quickly made their way into the cavern below. Ness calmly walked further into the cavern with Nico right behind him, complaining all the way. Eventually they ran into the man once again.

"I'm gonna show ya something, but only you…" He trailed off stepping into the next room, an eerie smile on his face.

"nope. Nope. NOPE." Ness blinked as Nico scooped him up and ran full tilt towards the cavern's entrance. Breathing deeply, Nico set him down and gestured towards the ladder. "All right, we're out of here."

Ness crossed his arms and stayed where he was.

"Ness, buddy, c'mon. You can't be serious." Kneeling, Nico looked straight into Ness's eyes "I don't know what your crazy parents have taught you but you do not, under any circumstance, go into strangers' basements alone with them."

Ness cocked his head to the side with a confused frown, and pointed at him. He was hardly _alone_ , Nico had been with him the whole time.

Nico sighed and pulled off his glasses, scrubbing a hand across his face. Replacing his glasses, he stood and gave Ness a serious look.

"Fine, we'll see his 'treasure', but if he so much as looks at you funny, I'll bash him in the head with that bat of yours."

 **An Unlikely** friend **Ship (Screenshot)**

The SS LP was quiet. Well, as quiet as the cruise ship ever got that is. Usually Nico's stream nights were much more hectic (no supervision~) but tonight was different. The Council of Voices had called an emergency meeting to discuss kicking Monokuma off the Council and giving his seat to (King) Mickey Mouse. Sora had considered reminding them that King Mickey was currently trapped with Riku on the other side of the Door to Darkness but decided against it. There were at least two dead people sitting on the Council so it wasn't a stretch to think they would be able to recruit the King. With the Council gone, the characters dispersed to different parts of the ship to watch the livestream.

Carrying his laptop, Sora kept his eyes on the stream as he carefully weaved his way around obstacles, heading towards the kitchen for a snack. He had nearly made it when he slammed into a person turning the corner. Sora stumbled backwards as the person's hands shot out, steadying his arms before he could dropped the laptop. After making sure the laptop was secure, Sora looked up to thank whoever it was and-Wow this guy was tall. Sora leaned back until he could at the guy's face and offered a smile.

"Heh, sorry about that, I should pay more attention to where I'm going." Adjusting his hold on the laptop, Sora held out his hand "I'm Sora. You're that guy from that Investigations game right? Mr., um…"

"Gumshoe, pal. Detective Dick Gumshoe. Nice to meet you Sora!" Gumshoe shook Sora's hand, friendly as ever. "So where ya heading pal?"

"I'm going to get a snack from the kitchen. Wanna come?" Sora didn't know many people aboard the SS LP that weren't from his own game, except maybe Soul Shield. Might as well make some friends, right?

Gumshoe agreed enthusiastically, and the two of them headed for the kitchen. The two ended up watching most of the stream together. They had been watching for quite a while when Sora noticed something odd in the chat.

"Hey Gumshoe?"

"Yeah Pal?"

"What does 'Sora x Gumshoe' mean?" Sora inquired, pointing to the chat.

"I dunno pal. I'm not up to date on all the new internet lingo. Maybe one of the kids on the ship will know?"

The two set out to find a more internet savvy passenger on the vessel. It didn't take them very long to come across the illustrious Rintarou Okabe, self-proclaimed mad scientist, sitting at a table. Okabe glanced up from his laptop as they approach.

"Ah if it isn't the Keeper of the Light Heart and the Bumbling Detective, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked dramatically.

Deciding to ignore the nicknames for now, Sora and Gumshoe moved so that the too could see Okabe's screen.

"Hey, Okabe can I ask you something?" Sora began innocently

"You need my genius? Well then feel free to ask!" Okabe exclaimed, opening his bottle of Dr. P.

"What does that mean?" Sora asked pointing at yet another instance of the words Sora x Gumshoe.

Raising the bottle to his lips, Okabe looked where Sora was pointing.

And promptly spat his drink out all over the screen.

Gumshoe patted Okabe on the back as he doubled over coughing. Waving off the detective, Okabe sat up straight, sending his computer a disbelieving look. After a moment Okabe returned his attention to Sora and Gumshoe, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Don't...don't worry about. It uh doesn't mean anything, okay?" Okabe gave a nervous laugh.

The two didn't quite believe him but having no way prove to it, they simply thanked Okabe for his help and went back to the kitchen and Sora's laptop. They spent the remainder of the Livestream together. As it came to an end Sora gave an enormous yawn.

"This was fun! We should hangout again sometime, Mr. Gumshoe!"

"Sure thing Pal! That sounds great!"

The two exchanged good nights and headed to their respective rooms. Laying down on his bed, Sora couldn't stop the giant grin that spread across his face. He had a feeling this was the start of a wonderful and unusual friendship.

* * *

Nico strikes me as the kind of person that, were he in the world of Earthbound, would not allow the Cultists and Gangsters to actually get close enough to attack the kids. Instead he'd probably deck the nut jobs, pick up the children and run away as fast as humanly possible. Overprotective Big Brother Nico is best Nico. Fact.

An Unlikely (Friend)Ship is dedicated to the person in chat who said chapter 2 of this fic was good but needed more Gumshoe x Sora. I'm sorry I can't remember your name.

I picture the SS LP as a cruise ship If it wasn't that massive I think the characters would have killed each other by now.

Shout out to OblivionDTD for their epic story A Voice's Battle Royale which I reference in this story.

Thanks for reading! Love you guys~


	4. Chapter 4

"Well that ought to take care of that. Sorry for taking so long—Evan?" 

Roland looked around him. He had been buying a new gun, but with so many options it had taken longer than he thought to pick one out. He assumed his young king would be waiting beside him, as he always was, when he finished, but Evan was nowhere to be seen. 

"Evan?" He called again, stepping away from the weapons stall. He must be nearby somewhere, Roland thought, he's much too clever to simply wander off in an unfamiliar city. Glancing around the former president spotted a head of blond hair over by the fountain. An inordinate amount of relief flooded his system  
at the sight and he headed towards it. 

"Evan! There you are—" 

Roland stopped short. Sitting on the edge of the fountain, so as to be roughly eye level with Evan was a young man Roland had never seen before. If he had been in a clearer state of mind, Roland might have noticed the style of the young man's hair, his thick black glasses, and his casual clothes all marked him as from Roland's former world. Unfortunately, all Roland could see at that moment, was the young man's hand _petting Evan's ears._

It took a great deal of self-control not to immediately whip out his gun. 

At the sound of his name, the young king turned. When he saw who was calling him he smiled brightly and ran over. 

"Roland! Sorry I left you behind, I'm afraid I got rather distracted by my, er, friend!" 

The young man walked over casual, stopping not too far behind Evan, and gave a small wave. 

"Hi." 

Roland forced his expression into a polite smile and extended a hand. 

"Hello there. My name is Roland. Who might you be?" 

The other man shook Roland's hand firmly. "The name's Nico. A pleasure to finally meet you Roland!" 

"Finally?" 

"Ha, Evan's always gushing about you! It's nice to meet his hero in person." 

"N-Nico!" Evan squeaked in embarrassment. 

Roland stomped down on the flush of pride he felt at those words. Focus, Roland. "Ah, you two are friends then?" 

Both immediately averted their eyes guiltily. 

"U-uh yeah, that's right." Nico managed, forcing a nervous smile "First time we've met in person, though." 

"Which is why you were so keen to pet my ears, I wager?" The king teased. 

"Haha, yeah! They're just so cute" Roland twitched slightly "Your ears remind me a lot of Bernie's, actually!" 

"Bernie?" Evan queried. 

"Yep, she's my….eh? Bernie! Where'd you go, you little goober?" 

Nico's head began snapping around as he searched for his apparently missing companion. As he turned around to look behind him, a small girl became visible, stepping in perfect sync to avoid entering Nico's line of sight. 

The girl's brown skin stood in stark contrast to the bright yellow dress and oversized grey cardigan. She looked younger than Evan, maybe 7 or 8 years old. Her large brown eyes regarded them silently but her most striking feature was the tall black dog ears sticking out of her poofy black hair. The girl smiled and put a finger to her lips. When Nico turned slightly, the girl followed suit, gracefully keeping just out of the other man's sight. After a few moments of this Evan began giggling, catching Nico's attention. 

"What's so funny?" the other man asked confused. 

"O-oh, um, hehe, i-it's nothing!" Evan giggled. 

Nico raised a disbelieving eyebrow, before spinning around quickly, snatching up the girl and returning to face them. The girl pouted and Evan laughed all the harder. 

"Gotcha! Now, would you like to introduce yourself like a good girl?" 

The girl stuck her tongue out at Nico, hopping out of his arms and giving Evan and Roland an impressive curtsey. 

"Je m'appelle Bernie. Je suis le compagnon de ce drôle mec. Ravi de faire votre connaissance!" 

"Huh?" Evan looked to Roland in confusion. 

Blinking in surprise, Roland attempted to form a coherent response. "I, er…Désolé, je ne parle pas beaucoup français." 

Roland winced as he stumbled through his sentence. French wasn't his strongest language. At all. Rather than upset, Bernie looked absolutely delighted at his attempt. 

"Vous parlez plus de français que mon petit manchot! Mais, ou ont mes manières? Si vous êtes de notre monde, puis Je devrais salue vous correctement!" 

Before Roland could even attempt to mentally translate that, Bernie shot forward popping up on her toes to press a kiss to each of Evan's cheeks. The young king reeled back with an intense blush, stammering nonsensically. Bernie giggled, delighted, and jumped back, flicking Roland a quick, two finger salute. 

And then she disappeared in a shower of light, leaving Roland to wonder if this day could get any stranger. 

"Goodness! Bernie…is she a familiar, Nico?" 

"Yeah." 

Roland frowned. "Your familiar is a little girl?" 

Nico blinked. "Well, sometimes. Usually she's a French bull dog." 

Roland opened his mouth before closing it again. He wasn't sure he actually wanted to know. 

"Sorry about all that though. She takes the whole "French" thing to heart I guess." 

"It's an act?" 

"You know, I'm not really sure. She can definitely understand me when I talk, but I've never actually heard her speak English, so who knows." Nico shrugged overdramatically as though to emphasize his point, and Roland dropped the subject with a sigh. 

"O-oh, well I'm sure she'll be quite useful in our battles." 

Roland snapped his attention over to Evan. "What?" 

"Oh, um well…We were thinking perhaps, Nico could come with us." Evan regarded Roland nervously "I-Is that alright?" 

Roland smiled softly at his king. "If you want him to come along then I'll defer to your judgement." 

Evan returned the smile before running in the direction of the vendors, shouting something about buying some equipment for their new companion. 

Before Nico could follow, Roland put a hand on his shoulder, holding him in place. 

"Evan has placed his trust in you, so I'll not protest you coming along. Just know that if you betray that trust, I will not hesitate to make sure you regret it. Understood?" Roland smiled at the other man. 

There was nothing kind about the expression. 

Nico paled and nodded his head frantically. As soon as Roland released his shoulder, he rushed after Evan, putting as much distance between the two of them as possible. Roland followed at a slower pace, smirking slightly. This Nico fellow didn't seem too bad, honestly. As long as he didn't do anything to harm Evan, he and Roland would get along _just fine._


End file.
